World at War: Hearts and Minds is an experimental story, built to pit players against one another in the midst of a series of international crises that eventually lead to all-out conflict.
The novelty of this story is that the outcome of that war, and the “victor” as it were, are largely irrelevant to the narrative.
Each player in this story will take on the role of the Press Department of a fictional nation involved in the conflict.
Each scene will set out the actual facts of some event, and the players will issue a Press Release from their governments spinning the situation to suit their narrative.
Players will be issued a set of Evidence cards to guide their Releases. To have a Release read by the Judges, the player must play an Evidence card, and a Strength or Weakness card.
Strength cards will allow a player’s message to be more widely received on a global scale, while weakness cards will detract from world-wide reception.
At the end of each scene, the Narrator will allow a council of Judges (a private Facebook group of non-playing friends) to review each statement, its associated strengths and weaknesses, but NOT THE ACTUAL FACTS OF THE EVENT, OR ORIGIN OF THE RELEASE. It will be up to them to vote on which Press Release is most apt.
The first place Release will be issued two Popular Support cards. The Second place will be issued 1.
To win the game, a player will need to acquire 16 popular support cards.
Players may make their own cards, so long as those cards are in keeping with the tone of the Story.
This is an experiment. Players will be asked to provide feedback to improve the experiment for future iterations, and to consider sitting on Judgement panels for later groups.
Hosted and narrated by:
James Davey (Arkalem)
Started 09/08/14.
Scenes played: 3
License: Community License